As you might've guessed, we had another great week. Some funny stories to add!
On
Tuesday we were walking through the quartier when these 3 guys stop and
they're like, "Hey man yo wussup bro" and we say, "Oh hey not much!
Woah, nice Manchester United jersey!" We get back - "hehehe
yeeaahhh..." from all three of them. So I'm like, "You a big Wayne
Rooney fan?" "Hehee yeaah yeaahh" "Well that's great, where are you
all headed?" "Hehehehe yeaahhhhh...." "Well, see ya later!" "Yeeaahhh
hehe yeaahhh"" It was the funniest thing...kinda hard to explain by
email haha. I'll have to recount that one when I get back. Anyway, an
instant classic between Elder Sperry and myself. "yeaahhh hehe..."
Then I saw a guy playing harmonica for the first time in 20 months.
On
Wednesday we had district meeting with the Mpaka elders again, and I
got to share a little message in honor of Elder Tweneboah's last day in
Pointe-Noire. He was really sad...he cried, I teared up (I don't know
what's wrong with me, but I've been really good about not crying
unreasonbly recently), and everyone was emotional to some extent.
Anyway, we took him to the airport after and said goodbye. I still had
Sister Bailey's delicious, pink rice krispies on my breath. So...so
good. Paula Dean would've been proud of the butter content.
We went straight to Darcyne's new house, which is way nice,
but a little further away than before. Ok a lot further. But still
accessible! They had prepared us a surprise plate of meats and cheeses
to snack on, and then gave us a little sucker on the way out. I just
love that family. Laura and Giorgio's dad came yesterday, so we might
get to meet him on Wednesday. Anyway, Darcyne is really happy to be in
her own house away from the temptation and responsability of taking care
of 10 other people in her parcelle from before. She seems a lot more
happy, anyway. Thank goodness for the Gospel :)
We met these two new guys on Wednesday evening, Kelly and Desi, and they seem way nice. I'll let you know the suite !
On
Thursday, Van asked us to meet him impromptu to ask for advice about
his job. We're not really supposed to give personal advice, but because
it happens so often (people trust the missionaries here more than their
parents sometimes) I've learned how to veil an answer to their question
by telling them to figure it out themselves through prayer and paying
attention to the Spirit, fasting if necessary. Funnily enough, they are
always convinced that we told them what to do when in reality they end
up answering themselves. So when they're like, "Elders thank you so
much for telling me what to do!" we just refer them to God and tell them
to thank Him instead, because in the end He's the one doing all the
talking! You can have the same experience, you know! If you've ever
been stuck between left and right, maybe all you have to do is ask God
which road to take and listen carefully for a response. Don't just hang
up the phone when you say "amen", but listen to heart...when He's
talking to you! Yes, like the song. Anyway. Van was satisfied with
our answer and figured it out. On his own!
We had an interesting Friday. After our first rendez-vous
fell through, we walked all the way to our second meeting so we could
try and discover any new shortcuts. It worked! We found this cool road
that we'll probably never take again, but it was worth the walk. Then
we walked all the way back to KM4, walked all the way to Malala only to
be ratéd, and finally caught a bus to Mayinga to see Darcyne again. On
the bus ride up I got to chat in kikongo with the passengers, and gave
away a ton of brochures amidst people cracking up over the fact that a
mundele can speak their language. The controller even gave me a 100 CFA
discount! :) On the way back, we had another chat with the other 20
people in the bus, pulled out scriptures, gave out brochures, said a few
words in munukutuba, got everyone to laugh, and made a delicious
shmorgishborg to start our fast. We walked around 6.5 miles that day.
Saturday was awesome. We had planned a huge Helping Hands
activity at the beach, but the plan was to walk there from the church.
We didn't know just how far it was, and since everyone walks suuuppeerrr
slow, we ended up burning everyone to the beach. No one was there, so
we decided to look for the people who'd went ahead in the Bailey's car
(mostly just kids) and kept walking down the beach. For the next 45
minutes. It was awful. My left hip is officially out of service from
having walked on a sloped sandy beach for nearly an hour. It was
totally worth it though - we found 2 huge onions washed in from the
tide, a tiny squid, a weird fish with shiny skin, and lots of cool
shells. When we did meet up with everyone (there were tons of people
there!!!), we each got a trash bag and started picking up. Except me - I
helped the Baileys translate for this guy who wanted to sell them
nativity scenes from Niger. Elder Bailey comes over and he's like, this
guy looks familiar. Well, turns out it was THE SAME GUY who sold them a
nativity scene in COTE D'IVOIRE! 3 YEARS AGO! It was incredible! And
he still tried selling them another one! Hilarious. Then these a nice
Chinese couple introduced themselves to us, asking where we were from. I
got to give my first brochure to a Chinese guy, even though he told us
they weren't Christian. It's ok. Still counts! :) During this whole
time, my companion and I were fasting for one of our investigators.
Imagine our disappointment when they broke out the sandwiches and
drinks. We just held onto ours for dinner. After the service project
we went back home, taught Paco's neighbor Godthanks (I know), and
crashed back at the apartment for studies. We were whipped beyond
tired. It was hard to stay awake as I finished reading the Old
Testament in Munukutuba, but I finally got that out of the way! On to
the New Testament...
We had a great Sunday. There were 20 investigators at church,
and 5 of them were new faces. Sooo many people want to learn about the
Gospel, it's a huge blessing to be overwhelmed with investigators. We
got to sit down with one of them after church, and walked over to
Dieu-Merci's house to ask permission from his mom to keep teaching him
because he's only 14. She was more than happy to allow us to keep
seeing him. What a relief! He's easily been one of our best amis.
What a funny kid. He even makes jokes about his own name. He says it's
because when his mom gave birth she was praying that it was a boy
because she had already had 5 girls. Then he comes out and says, "ohh
Dieu merci!!" So...thus the name.
That's about all the news I have for this week...I'm
starting transfer number 14, leaving me with a little less than 4 months
until the end of my mission. It's...scary, to say the least.
Especially if I leave and go to a new sector, because that always makes
the time go by even faster. Meh. We'll see. Elder Masse and Gelinas
go home in 6 weeks. I can't imagine being in their shoes!!! It'll
happen soon enough I guess. Not looking forward to it! Maybe I'll get
ebola and they'll just send me to France to finish my mission haha.
Anyway, I love you all, I pray for you all, and I can't wait to see you all! :)
Have an amazing week!!!
Elder Garland
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